November 1st
John
Quote Originally Posted by John
“I’ll be assembling something called a Janus Mirror this evening. You know those two sided mirrors used for applying makeup—one with a normal reflection and the other slightly magnified? It’s something similar, in its basic form.”
…
“I suspect it is my best chance for a non-confrontational success against Valčdeir. An ideal encounter leads to forcing him to concede that he lost the challenge, and therefore must surrender his claim back to you, without harming him or Grayson.

“Well, without harming anything but their male egos. I don’t think there will be a way of avoiding bruising that.”
“That… sounds like it might work,” Emi says with a slow nod. “Just be careful once you transform him back, if you use the mirror. If the dragon is still in control, even his human form could hurt you. His claws are extremely sharp and he’s much faster and stronger than you would expect. I wouldn’t want him to surprise you.”

She squeezes John hand, breaking eye contact as she looks down at their intertwined fingers. “I wish I had some other idea I could give you, John. But I know next to nothing about dragons other than stories, and even less about Valčdeir. I didn’t even know that he had a name until you told me. I assumed that when Grayson was talking about the Dragon, it was more like… a collection of instincts, rather than an entire other being.”

The psychic hesitates for a moment. “John, I don’t know if this has crossed your mind, but I couldn’t help but think about it last night. Please, if you can, don’t hurt him too badly. Hurting Valčdeir will hurt Grayson when he transforms back, and he’s not as durable as a dragon. Of course, you should defend yourself. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t.” She makes a small noise of frustration. “This is just… the worst situation.”

Emi seems to take a moment to recenter herself and she picks up the cracker with meat and cheese she’d made earlier and nibbles on it. “I can try to talk to him,” she says, glancing back up at John. “I would much rather than be the solution than any of you fighting.”

Keith
“November 11th, that’s coming up, isn’t it?” Aeryn asks. “I’m still learning the order of the months.”

The alien gives Keith a wide, bright smile when Keith asks to learn Thraxian. “I would be happy to. I’ve been teaching John too. Maybe we can have a group class or something.”

After spending a few hours with Aeryn mall walking, Keith heads over to Coffee Knight, a small coffeehouse that is just across the street from Bastion.

He spots Maeve at one of the tables beside the side window typing on a small laptop. Her mass of curly red hair is pulled up into a messy bun, and she’s wearing some ripped jeans, and a light green scoop-necked shirt. She seems to be concentrating intensely on her laptop.

Her backpack is sitting in the seat beside her, but it doesn’t look like she has any coffee yet.